Tense
A moment in time
A moment of your time
A monument to time
Deep monumental time
A modicum of momentum through time
Occupied in time
A preoccupation with time (≈)
i-
i have/am/will
moved/moving/move through time
Forever and never (≠)
i say “i”
Yet what that will be/is/was hard to determine
Since what construed/construes/will construe “i” (∂)
I found myself shuttled/shuttling/will be shuttled from the chemical growbag of my mother’s womb
A precipitant precipitate, abreactive reagency, postpartum postulate (Ø)
Capillaries, thew and membrane all constructed/constructs/ will be constructed from words in the dictionary
Aught but a cluster of sensory excitations
Relayed/relaying/will be relayed to a central processing cortex
Which clutched/clutches/will clutch at them interpretatively,
Glossed and glommed/glossing and glomming/ will gloss and glom impressions
And imagined/imagine/will imagine them as singularly connected/connecting/will connect («)
Ergo clumped/clumping/will clump them together as a self-reflexive unity
Of self
Ergo ego
That imagined/imagines/will imagine it can act through time
And changed/change/will change events
As if time proceeded/proceeds/will proceed along regular intervals
As if the “i” existed/exists/will exist sequentially along an unbroken continuum
Until death and cessation (Ω)
The nagging uncertainty that ate/eats/will eat at the core of this i of me
Saw/sees/will see the me reached/reaching/will reach for a pen
And wrote/writes/will write a parallel sequence with will abridge/abridging/abridged continuum
Yet that i is avowedly fictional unlike the indeterminate state of the prior/current/subsequent me
Which itself was/is/will be, of course, a fiction
Set/setting/will set up a parallax ‘me’ reflective and reflexive of the i that already was/is/will be pushed out there as having represented/representing/ will represent me
Stood/standing/will stand for me stood/standing/will stand the test of time
Friction upon fiction
A fictional i viewed/viewing/will view a second fictional i at one stage removed/remove/will remove
No three-hundred and sixty degree vision was/is/will be possible
Because of single point perspective
Subjective perception subjected/subjecting/will subject itself to reflexive scrutiny
Even though neither being existed/exists/will exist (∓)
The second Being being the mark the first being had left/leaves/will leave on the earth
Even though all human marks were/are/will be buried beneath soil or were/are/will be digitised somewhere in the ether
A data set generated by another data set
Both became/become/will become an evanescent smudge, proof positive that time did/does/will progress in a forward direction
As the waves of the sea will wash/washing/washed over the beach and obliterates/ will obliterate/obliterated any impressions cast there
Entropy
A moment in time
A moment of your time
A monument to time
Deep monumental time
A modicum of momentum through time
Occupied in time
A preoccupation with time (∞)
*
Biography
Marc Nash has published 5 collections of flash fiction and his fifth novel will be published by Dead Ink Books in Autumn 2017. He collaborates with video makers to turn some of his flash into digital story telling. He lives & works in London.
